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Artificial Intelligence in Construction Market

Artificial intelligence in construction market was valued at USD 325.7 million in 2017 and is expected to reach a value of USD 1850.5 million by 2023 at a CAGR of 33.7% during the forecast period (2018 – 2023).

Artificial intelligence is the concept of machines being able to perform tasks in a way that would mimic complex human intelligence capabilities like recognition, planning and decision making. Although the technology was first introduced in the early 1950s, it has come to light in the past few decades. The advent of the internet of things and the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) increased the usage of this technology, especially in the heavy industries, like oil & gas, general manufacturing, and automotive.

Although the technology is widespread in all the parallel industries, construction has been the slowest segment, in terms of adoption of artificial intelligence technology. However, in the recent years, this technology has been beneficial in pre-construction phases, like planning and designing, enabling advanced capabilities for building information modelling and generative design. Considerable innovations in safety, monitoring, and maintenance systems that use AI capabilities to predict and warn about adverse situations are increasing the role of AI-based technology in the construction industry gradually.

Planning and Design has Highest Adoption

Planning and design phase of a building is one of the most crucial tasks in any construction activity. A lot of soft costs are spent on research, architecture, and design as making any changes in the construction phase would lead to budgetary constraints. This is encouraging many construction professionals to use advanced add-on software, along with the Building Information Modelling (BIM) software, in order to enable the capabilities of the generative design.

Generative design helps the planners to achieve a certain level of automation through machine learning (ML), which explores all the possible permutations of a solution, ultimately generating design alternatives to avoid any clash between the different models of plans produced by the individual teams (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and plumbing). Further, the ML add-ons allow BIM to test and learn from each iteration helping it to grow more efficient over time. Such advantages of the AI technology are leading the planning and design phase applications to be the fastest and highest adopters of artificial intelligence in the construction sector.

North America to Lead the Growth in Artificial Intelligence in Construction Market

North America is one of the most advanced construction markets in the world. In fact, it is the second largest construction market after the Asia Pacific holding more than 15% of the global construction revenues annually. Primarily driven by the construction activity in the United States due to reconstruction initiatives after the hurricane Harvey, and growing investment in Canada, the region is expected to be the fastest growing market for AI in construction. The change of political scenario in the United States and massive construction labor shortage in the region, despite considerable increase in construction labor, are driving the need for automation in the construction sector.